3 standing ovations greet first European oratorio performance

May 27, 2008

The combined choir from St. Cloud State, St. John’s and the College of St. Benedict perform in Colmar, France, today. The group will tour the Natzweiler concentration camp Wednesday in preparation for their performance on Thursday of the oratorio “To Be Certain of the Dawn.” / Dave Schwarz, dschwarz@stcloudtimes.com

Times photo by Dave Schwarz, dschwarz@stcloudtimes.com
Cantabile Girls' Choir members perform at St. Matthieu Church in Colmar, France, Tuesday.

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COLMAR, France — A predominately German audience inside a centuries-old Dusseldorf cathedral gave a standing ovation to the European premiere of the Holocaust oratorio “To Be Certain of the Dawn.”

Then came another ovation. And then a third.

“German audiences don’t do that once, let alone three times,” said Roland Specht-Jarvis, a native of Dortmund, Germany, and a St. Cloud State University professor and dean.

The reaction came from a crowd of numerous Germans who worshipped in the church when the Nazis were exterminating Jews and others they deemed undesirable.

The appreciation shown to the American delegation after that Saturday concert has resonated with the St. Cloud-area students in the midst of a cultural and musical tour to Germany, France and Switzerland.

It continued Tuesday night with a concert at St. Matthieu Church in Colmar, France, where more than 100 locals attended a sparsely advertised, free concert featuring the Cantabile Girls’ Choir and the combined choirs of St. Cloud State, St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict.

Although the Tuesday performance was a mix of pop, gospel and traditional choral pieces, it mingled themes of peace, racial harmony and a message that today’s youth carry the hope that mistakes of the past won’t be repeated.

“The people have been very warm and very welcoming, and it surprised me,” said Jay Terry, St. Cloud State senior. “When you’re in a foreign country the assumption is that you might not be welcome. But that’s not been the case. I’ve noticed a lot of, I don’t want to call it closure, but it’s healing going on and it’s very powerful.”

The trip is likely to get even more emotional as more than 200 people today visit a former concentration camp in Natzweiler, France. That visit comes one day before the second European performance of the oratorio, which will be Thursday at the former Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.

During the week that the group has been in Germany, they’ve visited the industrial and coal mining region where Hitler used the area’s natural resources to build his army. They’ve visited a synagogue where security was so tight in the wake of an October 2000 firebombing that the message of how many precautions Jews must take just to visit their place of worship can’t be missed.

And they’ve talked to locals at post-performance community meals about the past and the future.

“I haven’t felt like a tourist. I’ve felt like a part of the community,” said Dave Harri, a St. Cloud State junior. “We’re all the same people.”

Terry has seen a few of the same reactions from Europeans he has met.

“They cannot believe that people from Minnesota would shell out $2,000 apiece to come here and give free performances,” Terry said.

It’s been difficult to get around the language barriers, said David Lamprecht, a St. Cloud State junior.

“It’s been a ‘good’ difficult because we’ve gotten to learn so much about other cultures,” he said. “It’s so moving (to visit the synagogue), to the point where you say ‘That’s not right’ and we allowed that to happen.”

Many musicians expressed a sense of uncertainty about today’s visit to Natzweiler-Struthof and the performance there Thursday of the oratorio written by Michael Dennis Browne and composed by Stephen Paulus, both of Minnesota. Most were unsure how they would react or how they would manage to keep their emotions in check during today’s tour and at Thursday’s concert, where concentration camp survivors will also perform.

“I have no idea what to expect,” Lamprecht said. “This camp will change all of us and (bring) a realization that we can change — not the course of history and not where we’ve been, but where we are going.”